Agricultural Marketing Boards Research Articles

The emotional constraints of emancipatory information systems

PurposeThis paper aims to highlight the importance of the study of emotions in the successful implementation of information systems projects in developing countries. This paper studies one emotion, namely, anger, and discusses its detrimental impact on information system interventions. This paper suggests that controls are necessary for the management of anger emotion.Design/methodology/approachThis research study explores the case of an Indian agricultural marketing board that implemented an information systems project on the integration of agricultural markets. The data was collected through semistructured interviews from four stakeholder groups. This paper uses a qualitative approach and analyzes the data using thematic analysis. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice is used to study emotions in the case.FindingsThis paper finds that anger is the prominent emotion displayed at public sector organizations in India. This paper permeates all aspects of public organizations and has a detrimental impact on successfully implementing the information systems projects. Successful implementation of the information systems (IS) projects in India will need to have a framework for managing the anger emotion.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper within the information systems discipline that focuses on anger and its detrimental impact on successful IS interventions. A unique contribution of this paper is a framework for the study of emotions. This paper also introduces the idea of controls for emotional management.

Agricultural work-related fatalities and injuries in Punjab (India)

ObjectiveAnalysis of data on monetary compensation and estimating the rate of injuries related to agricultural activities in the state of Punjab.MethodsThe primary data were collected from 22 districts of Punjab...

A Crisis in National Unity?: The Chicken and Egg War, 1970–1971

This article examines the now largely forgotten, but then important, “Chicken and Egg War” of 1970–71. The chicken and egg war began when the Quebec government established the Fédération des producteurs d’œufs de consommation du Québec (FPOCQ) in 1970, a marketing board that began to restrict the price, grading, and sale of all eggs in Quebec, including egg imports from other provinces. The new board disrupted egg sales in Manitoba and Ontario, and it was not long before a series of legislative retaliations among the provinces took place, including strict import controls on broiler chickens and eggs and the seizure of out-of-province produce. Although predominantly contained to the neighbouring provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, this event was significant because it resulted in appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada, claims made concerning the rights of provinces vis-à-vis the federal government, and the restriction of agricultural goods, in this case, poultry and eggs, across provincial boundaries. This episode also had serious political ramifications, including fractured relationships among farmers, consumers, other industry stakeholders, and politicians and heightened tensions surrounding the legality and authority of provincial agricultural marketing boards. Ultimately, this “war” provided a significant impetus for the federal government to establish a national system of supply management in the egg and poultry sectors, a system that remains today.

Symbolic practices and power asymmetries in ICT4D projects: The case of an Indian Agricultural Marketing Board

Information and communications technology can be used to improve the social and economic situation in developing countries. However, a broad range of challenges has been identified, and one of these relates to the power asymmetries in developing countries. These power asymmetries are often deeply entrenched. We conducted an in-depth critical case study of an information and communication technology for development project in India. We looked at the historical and cultural context, the roles of the actors, and the use of symbolic practices. Using Bourdieu’s theory of practice and, in particular, his concept of habitus, our findings reveal how symbolic practices can work against ICT projects in developing countries. These symbolic practices, rooted in a particular culture, are tied to and constitutive of power asymmetries. We offer a framework for studying habitus in information systems research on information and communication technology for development that may be useful for others who wish to explore similar questions in their case study research.

A Reflexive Method for Validating the Results of Qualitative Analysis

One of the central arguments of Pierre Bourdieu is that social science researchers should reflect not only on the research object but also on the subject. How to achieve this? This question also relates to the calls for the operationalisation of reflexivity. This study addresses this research question. The aim of this study is to present a method for operationalising reflexivity. The study is an empirical study of an agricultural marketing board in India. The board controls over two hundred market yards of the state. These yards are specialized wholesale commodity markets where the agricultural commodities are traded. The major stakeholders in the trade are farmers, government officers, traders, and private vendors. The board implemented an agricultural marketing information system project that intended to interconnect the yards by modern day information technology. The data for the study are collected in form of semi-structured interviews with these stakeholder groups. The study uses a qualitative methodology based on the constant comparison method. Using this method a set of constructs is identified. These constructs are scrutinised through the lenses of reflexivity. Finally, a framework is presented that can guide the operationalisation of reflexivity. The five step framework compares the empirical data from the field with the data about the researcher. The framework helps in establishing the validity of research results as the same research methods are applied to both the research phenomenon as well as the researcher. The paper contributes to the discussion on the operationalisation of reflexivity.

Market information system in regulated markets of Haryana

The study was conducted in the state of Haryana in 2014–15 to study the various market news and information services made available by market committees of the state and to know their effective utilization by farmers. Six regulated markets namely Sirsa, Ratia. Kaithal, Karnal, Rohtak and Hodal were selected for the purpose, two from each of the 3 zonal administrations of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board. The responses of 120 farmers were secured from each selected market through pretested questionnaire to test the effective utilization of these services. It came to light that none of the markets except Sirsa had adequate infrastructure in place to disseminate market news to the farmers. The awareness percentages for Notice Board, Ticker Board, Agri Business Information Centre, Library and AGMARKNET were 45.8, 16.6, 4.1, 0 and 0.8 respectively. The percentage of farmers who found these facilities useful was even lower. Out of all the Information sources, farmers also ranked commission agents, fellow farmers, newspapers, village traders as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively for their reliability for getting market related information. The results clearly showed the neglected state of such an important aspect of agricultural produce marketing. The study recommended that the market committees should increase the number of notice boards and primarily work towards making the farmers aware of the various sources of information already available to them such as ABIC, Library, AGMARKNET. Also, farmers opined to get prices, arrivals and various schemes related information through SMS.

Issues Limiting the Progress in Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (NWR) Financing in India§

Although the warehouse receipt system (WRS) has the potential to improve the access to institutional credit of farming community, specially the smallholders lacking acceptable collateral for availing loan from formal channels, the progress of loan against NWR is observed to be slow. The paper has analysed the issues responsible for limited popularity of pledge finance amongst farmers. The agencies having integration with the market like the collateral management service providers, APMCs, Agricultural Marketing Board, etc., have been found to be a better window for disbursement of pledge finance. The physical availability of warehouses, complicated procedure and poor awareness level are some of the factors that limit the use of loan against a negotiable warehouse receipt (NWR). Awareness about advantages of NWR loans needs to be generated by involving banks, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, State Agricultural Marketing Boards, Regulated Market Committees, NGOs, co-operatives, FPOs and even APMCs. In order to inculcate storage habit and promote storage among the producers, warehousing should be encouraged under public-private partnership mode. There is a strong need to push NWR beyond a negotiable instrument as it offers immense potential to trade, short-term loan to farmers, balanced supply of agri-commodities and enhances farmers returns.

Regulated Agricultural Marketing Infrastructural Development in Punjab

Agricultural regulated markets have been playing a pivotal role in the procurement of farm produce. Punjab state accounts for about six per cent of the total regulated markets in the country. With the rising agricultural production and growth of regulated marketing facilities, Punjab has become one of the leading states in development of marketing infrastructure and facilities for orderly marketing of agricultural produce. in the best interests of both producers and consumers. Basic infrastructural facilities like pucca auction platforms, parking, drinking water, electricity, mandi lights, internal roads, rest houses, toilets, bank and post office etc. were present in almost all the markets. Market information system was quite efficient in all the sampled markets. Thus all the markets are performing well on physical as well as financial front and the number, capacity and existing infrastructure of the regulated agricultural markets in the state comfortably meets the requirements of the increasing farm produce in the state. Nearly half of the total expenditure incurred by the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board during 2011–12 was for the infrastructural development in the agricultural markets. The study concluded that an efficient agricultural marketing system can be evolved by improving, strengthening and optimally utilising the existing market infrastructure in the state.

Agricultural Marketing Information System: A Case Study in Regulated Markets of Meghalaya

Agricultural marketing information is crucial to the farmers to make decisions about what to grow, when to harvest, to which market produce should be sent and whether or not to store it. An attempt has been made to identify the various patterns of collection, documentation, dissemination and constraints of agricultural marketing information (AMI) of regulated market functionaries in the study area. To study the existing agricultural marketing information system (AMIS) and its dissemination, two regulated markets namely, Mawiong Regulated Market in Mylliem Block of East Khasi Hills and Garobadha Regulated Market in Selsella Block of West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya were selected purposively. From the findings of the research study, it was revealed that market arrivals and prices (maximum, minimum and modal) were the only two major types of market information documented and made available to the farmers and other intended beneficiaries in sample regulated markets. Both the regulated markets transmitted the information to AGMARKNET, Meghalaya State Agricultural Marketing Board (Portal), farmers, Department of agricultural marketing, Department of agriculture and newspaper. Farmers are unable to evaluate and document the agricultural market information due to illiteracy and poor communication ability, lack of auction system, no grading from the farmers point and cess was taken in random were the major constraints in management of AMI in the selected Garobadha and Mawiong regulated markets. Proper integration of various agencies for adequate and efficient dissemination of vital agricultural marketing information so that it will act as a ‘one-stop solution’ for the needs of the farming community of Meghalaya. There is need of proper dissemination of market intelligence and information through all possible means of communication for improving the marketing efficiency. There is a need to revitalise of APMCs and develop a system of market information utilising the modern information communication techniques so that market information reaches timely to the end users in the hilly regions of Meghalaya.

Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board: A catalyst for modern marketing

Haryana became an independent state on 1st November 1966, the state began its exciting and inspiring story of development. In the agricultural sector, with success of green revolution, ranked second state having large agriculture surplus. The state is regarded as the wheat basket and rice bowl of India, contributing 45 percent of rice and 65 percent of wheat to the central pool and more than five percent to total food production of the country. Therefore, Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board was constituted on 1st August, 1969. Initially, there were only 58 Market Committees in the State with 58 Principal yards and 60 Sub Yards. Even these markets were small and congested and lacked the basic amenities and facilities for proper handling of the arrivals. The farmers had to travel long distances even up to 50 to 60 kilometres to bring their produce and often on katcha roads, to the Markets. It provides infrastructure for facilitating marketing of agricultural produce. It supports agricultural development. The Board has been promoting the interest of the farmer, facilitating the buyers. Today, it has created excellent facilities for marketing of agricultural produce through 106 Principal Market Yards, 182 Sub Yards and 178 Purchase Centres, 184 purchase centres, 30 fruits and vegetable mandis, 477 grain mandis, 4 agro malls, 25 fodder markets, 33 cotton market, one wool market, one timber market, three fish markets and one apple market.Thus, it plays a vital role not only in stimulating production and consumption but also in accelerating the pace of economic development.

Performance of regulated agricultural markets in Punjab

Regulated agricultural markets have been playing a pivotal role in procurement of farm produce. With rising agricultural production, growth of regulated market facilities reveals that Punjab has been a leading state in development of marketing infrastructural facilities for orderly marketing of agricultural produce in the best interest of both producers and consumers. Punjab state accounts for about six per cent of the total regulated markets in the country. The density of existing regulated agricultural markets in Punjab is adequate as 443 regulated agricultural markets already exist in the state against requirement of 641 regulated agricultural markets. Further village economy is widely linked with markets through village/link roads maintained by Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board and Public Works Department which has smoothened the selling and buying of farm inputs and farm produce. Also a remarkable rise in income from market fee for all the markets in the state is there which indicates the good economic condition of these markets. All this indicates that the regulated agricultural markets of the state are performing well but the need of the hour is further expansion and strengthening of these markets for enhancement of efficiency and consistent development of the economy.

Impact of KSAMBS’ Free SMS to Farmers on Agricultural Marketing Prices- A Case Study in Karnataka (India)

This paper analyzes the impact of Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Board (KSAMBs’) free SMS (Short Message Service) to farmers on agricultural marketing prices using primary (from 110 farmers) and secondary information (from KSAMB and NIC). From the secondary data, it was found that about 89.26 percent of the registered users (120071 numbers) were farmers. Results from the primary data showed higher share of SMS beneficiaries in the age group of 25 to 40 years (46.36 %). Further around 95.5 percent of the farmers were educated, who had expressed satisfaction about the SMS information received in local and English languages. Most of the medium and large farmers (52 %) had benefited from selling their produce based on the free SMS on price information. It is interesting to note that about 88.18 percent of the beneficiary farmers had shared the price information to other farmers. A majority of the farmers (80 %) opined that disseminated information was simple, timely, understandable and accurate, which helped them in fetching better price. Results of study provide useful insights to the policy makers for enhancing the benefits as well as further improvement of the service delivery.

Trade Liberalization, State Trader Management Tenure, and Grain Pricing in Botswana

This article examines how trade liberalization and grain marketing board management tenure influenced grain pricing in Botswana. Regression analyses of nominal protection rates (NPRs) and marketing margins (MMs) are used to test the hypothesis that policy reforms influenced grain pricing in the country. Moreover, a comparison of NPRs is undertaken to determine whether management tenure has had an influence on grain pricing. The results indicate that the marketing board switched from taxing to subsidizing consumers following the 1991 policy reform from food self-sufficiency to food security. A reversal occurred after the board's 1997 restructuring, which involved, among other things, closing down Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board's (BAMB's) loss-making units and a change in the composition of BAMB's board of directors. Management tenure at BAMB also had an influence on grain pricing. The period 1989–1997, in particular, was characterized by high consumer subsidization, highest marketing margins, and lowest profits. This could have been avoided had management adopted pricing regime consistent with public policy. This notwithstanding, perennial losses experienced by the marketing board also resulted from fragmented production and low producer market participation.

The Emergence of Agricultural Marketing Boards Revisited: A Case Study in Canada

Canadian milk marketing boards are agricultural institutions tightly linked to the administration of dairy programs and supply management. Using insights from the New Institutional Economics (NIE) literature this paper investigates the factors influencing the emergence of these self‐regulated, “hybrid” institutions that are managed by producers but necessitate governmental intervention to be operational. Our analysis focuses on the case of the Québec milk marketing board. It shows that the Québec milk board ensured transactional security among trading partners, where neither pure private ordering contract enforcement institutions, nor pure public ordering institutions would have succeeded to do so. The empirical case of the Québec milk board thus suggests that marketing boards in Canada may have historically assumed a broader function than merely increasing producers' rents. Au Canada, les offices de mise en marché du lait sont des institutions agricoles étroitement liées à l'administration de programmes laitiers et à la gestion de l'offre. À l'aide de la documentation sur la nouvelle économie institutionnelle, le présent article examine les facteurs qui influencent l'émergence de ces institutions hybrides et autoréglementées, qui sont administrées par les producteurs mais nécessitent l'intervention gouvernementale pour être opérationnelles. Notre analyse s'est penchée sur le cas de l'office de commercialisation du lait du Québec. Notre analyse a montré que l'office de commercialisation du Québec assurait une sécurité transactionnelle entre les partenaires commerciaux, ce qu'aucune institution privée ou publique n'aurait réussi à faire. Le cas empirique de l'office de commercialisation du lait du Québec autorise à penser que les offices de mise en marché au Canada ont peut‐être assumé une fonction plus large que celle d'avoir accru la rente économique des producteurs.

Price equivalent tariffs and quotas under a domestic monopoly

Price-equivalent import tariffs and quotas are compared when domestic production is controlled by a monopolist, say an agricultural marketing board with the power to restrict domestic supply, under endogenous terms of trade. Welfare comparisons boil down to sourcing costs comparisons. Quotas tend to dominate at high domestic prices, ad valorem tariffs at intermediate prices and specific tariffs at low domestic prices. Welfare maxima are achieved with more restrictive policies than under perfect competition. These results rationalize separate negotiations for sensitive products in the Doha Round and the setting of tariff-rate quotas that mimic import quotas for these products. Finally, in ascertaining the robustness of our policy ranking to the choice of variable anchoring the comparisons, we found that specific tariffs unambiguously dominate ad valorem tariffs and quotas when government revenue or imports anchor the comparisons. However, some quota revenues and import levels cannot be achieved with tariffs.

The Interrelationship Between Bank Failure and Political Interventions in Tanzania in the Pre-Liberalization Period

Over the years there has been an increase in the number of bank failures in both centralized and decentralized economies (Saunders, 1994; Williams, 1995; The Economist, 1992; European Bank of Reconstruction, 1993). Internal reasons given for the bank failures include reckless lending, corruption, non-use of prudent classification risk assessment methods, fraud and management deficiencies. External factors such as deregulation; lack of information among bank customers; homogeneity of the banking business, connections among banks do cause bank failure. For centrally planned economies government and political interference in the banking operations and policies also contribute to bank failure. Tanzania, which until recently was characterized by a centrally planned economy, and the government having majority (51%) share holding in parastatals and banks also experienced bank failure in form of non-performing assets (NPAs). In Tanzania, bank policies reflected government directives and policies as well as political motives. Due to the dual government ownership of the bank and the parastatals, bank lending policies, procedures and regulations favored parastatal firms and agricultural marketing boards. For example, at the end of 1998, out of 78% NBC loan portfolio the majority went to parastatals and cooperative unions, with only 3% going to private firms. The majority of parastatals and cooperative unions were frequent loss makers and financially distressed. For continued existence they had to depend on the government subvention, which proved to be a heavy burden to the government. As a result, when the parastatals were experiencing financial difficulties and unable to pay the bank loans, the government solved the problem by directing the National bank of Commerce (NBC), the only commercial bank, to offer loans to the troubled parastatals and cooperative unions. By 1991, due to increased lending to financial distressed parastatals and cooperative unions, the NBC suffered large non-performing loans (NPAs) equal to 70% of the total bank NPAs. Considering the high rate of NPAs suffered by NBC, this paper has tried to show that government and political interventions and the non-use of prudent credit scoring methods had contributed to the NBC failure. African Journal of Finance and Management Vol.9(1) 2000: 14-30

Internal and external trade in the 1970s

In the golden decade of the 1970s South Africa's trade reflected the more difficult economic conditions of the time, signalled by the ending of rapid economic growth and the onset of double digit inflation. The illusion of prosperity was maintained by the rise in the gold price and accompanying expansion of the currency base. These developments in turn were reinforced by the policies of the Vorster government, which did not understand the workings of the market and had a long standing bias in favour of government intervention and centralised state control, as could be seen in the operation of the agricultural marketing boards, in the industrial decentralisation policies, and in the government's futile attempts one is tempted to say Manuel-like attempts to ignore the market and to maintain low interest rates at a time of double digit inflation. Both internal and external trade reflected these conditions, which were further reinforced by the ending of a quarter of a century of unparalleled growth in the international economy.

Marketing Boards: The Canadian Experience Revisited

farmers to act jointly in the sale of their products to increase their bargaining power. The development, general nature, and objectives of Canadian agricultural marketing boards and the approaches taken in pursuit of these objectives were reviewed in this forum some ten years ago (Veeman 1987). Most of these features still apply and are not repeated here. However, the policy environment within which marketing boards operate has changed greatly in the intervening decade. During this time, there have been changes in society's expectations of the appropriate role of government intervention and an increasing concern to reduce levels of government expenditures. International commitment to the modification and restraint of national levels of support and protection for agriculture through the incorporation of agriculture in the last round of multilateral trade ne-

Smallholder Voice and Rural Transformation: Zimbabwe and Kenya Compared

Among more than fifty African states, Zimbabwe and Kenya represent two of a handful of success stories where agricultural production and marketing boomed after independence and smallholders played a major role.' In first five years of independence, from 1980 to 1985, Zimbabwe's small-scale communal farmers tripled production of maize and cotton, country's key crops; communal sector superseded privileged large-scale commercial sector in both production and marketing. Sales of maize by communal farmers grew from 48,600 metric tons in 1975-76 to 545,200 metric tons in 1984-85, and number of communal farmers registered to sell maize to Grain Marketing Board (GMB) rose from 19,195 in 1979 to 490,000 in 1989.2 Kenya experienced a similar agricultural revolution in smallholder sector. From 1964 to 1974 agricultural production in Kenya increased annually by 4.9 percent, and from 1972 to 1978 by 3.8 percent. Smallholder production of cash crops for export rose even faster; smallholders produced majority of Kenya's coffee and over 30 percent of its tea by 1977.3 The standard of living of rural Zimbabweans and Kenyans also rose as a result of vastly improved access to education, health care, and other services.4 In Zimbabwe postindependence government redirected resources and increased spending to provide rural population with services, while in Kenya smallholders engaged in self-help or harambee programs to provide education and other services with significant levels of funding from government. The rural transformations in Zimbabwe and Kenya were remarkable, especially when contrasted with dismal record of most African states and urban bias of their governing elites. In explaining few agricultural success stories in Africa, Robert Bates has pointed to two factors: domination of nationalist movements that succeeded colonial governments by rural producers, and agricultural marketing boards founded by producers themselves.5 In comparing sustained producer prices and agricultural success in Kenya with decline in Ivory Coast, Jennifer Widner found key in the organization of farmer interests through a variety of unions and associations rather than in regular, semicompetitive elections.6 However, Bates and Widner do not specifically explain smallholder success in agriculture or in expansion of nonagricultural services that transformed rural life in Zimbabwe and Kenya. This article argues that smallholders themselves were largely

Consumers/Citizens and the National Competition Policy

NCP provides a framework for reform ranging from the introduction of competition in energy and water services to the dismantling of agricultural marketing boards. The effects on consumers will depend upon whether their interests are narrowly construed as preoccupations with price and choice of services or whether they extend to broad social justice and equity considerations. The ‘marketisation’ of government services is not concerned with distributional equity, and budget funding of CSOs is necessary to address distributional inequities. But domestic consumers will remain captive to monopoly franchises and competition objectives add pressure for the ‘contracting out’ of government services and the winding back of cross‐subsidies which have traditionally operated in favour of household consumers.NCP will transform the public from ‘citizen’ to ‘consumer’. Consumer advocates have risen to these new challenges and grasped the opportunity presented by industry restructuring to propose a range of mechanisms for consumer empowerment. This article will briefly identify some of the key issues for consumers in the implementation of the NCP and demonstrate the complexity of any attempt to assess the threats and opportunities for consumers. Particular attention will be given to the reforms to the electricity industries in NSW and Victoria.